The present invention relates to thermal printing, and more particularly, to a thermal printer that can Operate with both conventional liner and liner-less print media. A conversion kit allows an originally only conventional liner capable printer to become a liner or liner-less media capable printer.
Formerly, liner-less label capable printers utilized a non-stick surface applied by a process known as plasma coating. Plasma coating however, is inherently more costly and limited to substrates that can withstand the heat of contact with vaporized metal particles. Plasma coating upon cutting surfaces dulls the cutting surface through the deposition of a rounded edge surface upon the original cutting edge. The use of plasma coating on printer components also limits the choice of colors which can be used. Color selection of interior and exterior visible portions of the printer contributes to the overall appearance and integration of the non-stick component with the rest of the components in the printer. Plastic materials used to create non-stick surfaces have limited durability and strength when used in applications where there is repeated relative motion between a printing mechanism and the media it is designed to transport. Tests of existing plasma coating liner-less label printers using linered label stock, reveal that plasma coatings are two slippery for linered label stock to dispense properly through the media travel path of the printer. Also, there is a large number of installed linered media label printers which are incapable of using liner-less media labels. The present invention solves these problems and others which will become apparent upon a review of the following disclosure.